How & Where to Buy NFTs
Let’s start with the Basics
Ethereum is a platform powered by blockchain technology that is best known for its native cryptocurrency, called ether, or ETH, or simply ethereum.
Gas fees are payments made by users to compensate for the computing energy required to process and validate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
Minting is the process of creating or producing something. In blockchain, minting means, validating information, creating a new block and recording that information into the blockchain. For example, someone can mint an NFT or mint a new cryptocurrency.
Minting an NFT is how your digital asset becomes a part of the Ethereum blockchain–a public ledger that is unchangeable and tamper-proof. Similar to the way that metal coins are minted and added into circulation, NFTs are also tokens that get “minted” once they are created.
Currency for NFTs
NFT Marketplaces
So you’ve got a piece of digital art – an image, a song, a sound effect, a video – and you want to turn it into an NFT and sell it online?
There are a handful of platforms (Opensea is currently the most popular) that make it really easy to do just that, will typically cost you between $70 to $140 depending on gas fees, and will get your NFT into a digital marketplace almost immediately. You can also buy NFTs from these marketplaces.
Minting Projects
There are two ways you can mint an NFT:
- You can mint NFTs directly from the project’s website
- On an NFT marketplace
Most projects will allow collectors and investors to mint NFTs directly from their website.
Let’s Buy An NFT on Opensea
OpenSea is the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace. There are two ways to buy. Like Ebay, you can place an offer on an NFT or some sellers will have their NFT listed at a fixed-price. Let’s explore both scenarios, however the process is fairly the same. Go to Opensea.io and explore the NFTs on their marketplace, once you found the one you’d like to buy, this is what you do depending on if it’s on Auction or being sold for a fixed-price.
How to make an offer on a NFT
Select "Make Offer" on the item page.
If the item is part of an unsafelisted collection, you'll be prompted to review collection details and confirm that this collection is the correct one.
Select the currency you'd like to make your offer in. If you'd like to make an offer in ETH, you'll notice that the only option is Wrapped ETH (WETH).
If the item is a Polygon item, you'll only see an option for Polygon ETH (denoted by a purple logo).
Please note, If you're making an offer in a currency you've never purchased with before, like WETH, you may be prompted to pay a one-off gas fee (network transaction cost) to allow your wallet to purchase with that particular currency. After you've enabled your wallet for trading, you'll be able to make offers in the currency for free.
Now enter the amount of your offer in the appropriate currency and the expiration date.
Select Make Offer and sign the relevant transactions in your Metamask wallet.
To see a list of all active offers linked to your wallet address, select the Offers tab in your profile.
Buy an NFT at A fixed-price
Buying items with a fixed price on OpenSea. Select the Buy Now button, agree to the terms of service and click Confirm Checkout.
If you have insufficient funds, you can add more. Once complete, follow the prompts in your metamask wallet. Once the transaction is complete, the item will transfer to your wallet and the seller will receive the funds.